Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Trouble in the Middle Belt again

Cattle herders killed 82 people and wounded 25 in a village in central Nigeria over grazing rights, the police said Tuesday. The attack by Muslim Fulani herdsmen on the mostly Christian Egba ethnic group occurred over the weekend in Benue State. A police spokesman described a “longstanding issue over grazing rights and cattle rustling between Egba and Fulani people.” Some fear that if presidential elections next week are disputed, politicians could exploit tensions in the region, known as the Middle Belt, setting off deadly unrest, as happened in 2011. The vote pits the incumbent, President Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian from the south, against the former military leader Muhammadu Buhari, a northern Muslim.